Language Lovers

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National Puzzle Day

National Puzzle Day falls on 29 January. And what’s not to love about puzzles? They enhance alertness and focus, can provide social interaction, and once successfully completed bestow a warming sense of achievement. A recent book was even subtitled Life Lessons from Jigsaw Puzzles. But where the word… Read More
woman on laptop with houseplant next to her

Houseplant Week

This week is #houseplantweek. What a glorious thing to celebrate and counter that potential post-Christmas psychological slump. When so little plant life stirs outside, it’s time to turn our horticultural gaze indoors. But what exactly constitutes a ‘house plant’? The Collins definition is broad: ‘a plant that can be grown… Read More
illustration people thinking of crossword

Crossword Puzzle Day: a tribute to Anne Bradford

December 21st is Crossword Puzzle Day, and there could not be a more fitting occasion to celebrate the life of Anne R Bradford, cruciverbalist extraordinaire and author of the inimitable Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary, who died in October at the age of 90. It is not an overstatement that crosswords… Read More
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New Year, Fresh Start? The Vocabulary of Wellbeing

It goes without saying that the last couple of years have been challenging for many. With a New Year comes optimism and renewed vigour, making it a great time to commit to new goals. We’ve all made resolutions to find a new job, quit smoking, commit to that fancy new… Read More

Christmas or Yule: the lexicon of the holiday season

’Tis the season to be jolly,Fa-la-la-la-lah, la-la-la-lah. Ah, carols! Doesn’t everyone love them? They really lift our spirits: belting them out in company certainly gets me in the Christmas mood. I expect many of us will have a favourite. What’s yours? Hearing carols piped in shops or singing them… Read More

Omicron: What is it?

Alpha, Beta, Gamma…it’s all Greek to us. Quite literally, it’s the Greek alphabet. If you’ve watched the news or spent any time online lately, you might have heard the word omicron and wondered where it came from. In May 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that COVID-19 variants would… Read More

Sue Atkins – pioneering lexicographer and linguist

Beryl T. Atkins, one of the founding editors of the Collins Robert French Dictionary, died in September 2021 at the age of 90. Always known to friends and colleagues as Sue Atkins, she first joined Collins Dictionaries as a freelance compiler in the mid-1960s. Over the next twenty years, working… Read More

Get your crypto at the ready: NFTs are big in 2021

The digital revolution continues apace, changing our culture, relationships and the way we do business. Facebook recently announced it would change its trading name to Meta to better reflect its interest in the metaverse, a concept that has been described “a dream for the future of… Read More
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